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Music

The Body's New Album Is a Slog Through Electronic Misery

Stream the Portland noise doom duo's impossibly heavy, grindingly miserable new LP for Thrill Jockey, 'I Have Fought Against It, But I Can’t Any Longer.'
Photo by Sam Gehrke

Portland-via-Rhode Island duo The Body has always made music that speaks directly to the heaviness of existence that weighs upon us all. Heaviness of the future, heaviness of the past, heaviness of being lonely, heaviness of the unknown, heaviness of happiness because it can fade and lead to misery. From Chip King’s utterly horrified shrieks to Lee Buford’s frantically concise drumming, the two have consistently redefined what it means to be a “heavy” band—in both their sound and the way they make us look within ourselves.

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Their new record, I Have Fought Against It, But I Can’t Any Longer, deepens their grim outlook even further. The title of the album is a nod to Virginia Woolf’s suicide note, which she wrote to her husband before drowning herself in the River Ouse in Sussex, England, in 1941. The songs are mostly electronic-based this time around (much like their last full-length, No One Deserves Happiness), with King’s signature screams as well as guest vocals from Chrissy Wolpert (Assembly of Light Choir) and Ben Eberle (Sandworm) soaring over the top. With its nail-biting buildups and war-like drumming, could easily be the score for a bleak, dystopian action flick.

The record culminates with “Ten Times A Day, Every Day, A Stranger,” a spoken-word piece, in which a man describes the innate horror of walking through the day with depression. The same “madness,” perhaps, that Woolf described feeling moments before submitting herself to her disease and slipping beneath the current of the river. “Sometimes when I get up and emerge from the mists of slumber, my whole room hurts,” he says. “My whole bedroom hurts. The view from the window hurts. Kids go to school. People go shopping. Everybody knows where to go. Only I don’t know where I want to go.” If you’ve struggled with depression, this undoubtedly sounds familiar to you.

The Body show us that the most terrifying, miserable subject matter a band can come up with is not fiction or fantasy. It is, in fact, life itself.

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I Have Fought Against It, But I Can’t Any Longer is out this Friday on Thrill Jockey. Stream the whole thing right here:

Catch The Body on tour forever:

06. 19. 2018 Highline, Seattle, WA
06. 20. 2018 The Astoria, Pub Vancouver, BC
06. 22. 2018 Sled Island, Calgary, AB
06. 25. 2018 The Good Will Social Club, Winnipeg, MB
06. 26. 2018 The Aquarium, Fargo, ND
06. 27. 2018 Turf Club, St. Paul, MN
06. 28. 2018 The Cactus Club, Milwaukee, WI
06. 29. 2018 Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL
06. 30. 2018 Deluxx Fluxx, Detriot, MI
07. 01. 2018 Spirit Lodge, Pittsburgh, PA
07. 03. 2018 The Garrison, Toronto, ON
07. 04. 2018 La Vitrola, Montral, QC
07. 05. 2018 Great Scott, Allston, MA
07. 07. 2018 Saint Vitus, Brooklyn, NY
07. 10. 2018 Kung Fu Necktie, Philadelphia, PA
07. 11. 2018 Black Cat Backstage, Washington, DC
07. 12. 2018 Gallery 5, Richmond, VA
07. 13. 2018 The Pinhook, Durham, NC
07. 14. 2018 The Purple Buffalo, Charleston, SC
07. 15. 2018 The Masquerade Atlanta, GA
07. 16. 2018 Crowbar, Tampa, FL
07. 17. 2018 Gramps, Miami, FL
07. 18. 2018 Will's Pub, Orlando, FL
07. 20. 2018 Gasa Gasa, New Orleans, LA
07. 21. 2018 Stickyz Rock'n'Roll Chicken, Little Rock, AR
07. 23. 2018 Club Dada, Dallas, TX
07. 24. 2018 Satellite Bar, Houston, TX
07. 25. 2018 Barracuda, Austin, TX
07. 27. 2018 Sister, Albuquerque, NM07. 28. 2018 The Rebel Lounge, Phoenix, AZ
07. 29. 2018 Soda Bar, San Diego
07. 31. 2018 The Echo, Los Angeles, CA
08. 01. 2018 Bottom of the Hill, San Francisco, CA
08. 03. 2018 Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, OR

Cat Jones is actually feeling pretty good on Twitter.